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Kidd Creole, a founding member of seminal hip-hop collective Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five, was sentenced to 16 years in prison Wednesday for stabbing a homeless man to death.
As we reported earlier, the 62-year-old rapper, born Nathaniel Glover, was found guilty of manslaughter last month for the death of John Jolly, a homeless New Yorker who was stabbed twice in the chest with a steak knife in Midtown Manhattan.
During the month-long trial, Glover's attorney claimed that the stabbing was self-defense, but prosecutors accused an enraged Glover of stabbing Jolly, 55, twice in the chest with a steak knife because he thought Jolly was gay and made an overture toward him.
Manhattan state Supreme Court Justice Michele Rodney took issue with Glover's defense according to reporting from The New York Times.
Glover’s lawyer Scottie Celestin argued during the trial that Glover had felt threatened in part because Jolly was homeless.
“A life is a life is a life,” Rodney said, as she sentenced Glover, adding that the killing was not “somehow justified because the person is homeless.”
“Mr. Jolly’s death was devastating to his family and those who knew him,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a news release after the sentencing. “Every life we lose to violent crime ripples throughout our entire city, and we will continue to ensure everyone in our borough can live their lives with the sense of safety and security they deserve.”
Their 1982 hit song, "The Message,” is one of the most influential pieces of the period, combining social commentary with catchy beats in a way that was later emulated by predecessors, such as Public Enemy and KRS-One, and remains a hallmark of rap today.
In 2007, they became the first hip-hop group to join the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
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